Coleborn's Prime victory in Brazil a huge signpost

FORMER elite tour competitor Dean Brady has rated fellow Coast surfer Mitch Coleborn as a near certainty to grace next year's world tour after winning the Coca-Cola Quiksilver Saquarema Prime event in Brazil.

Brady said his mate Coleborn, who pocketed $40,000, would be full of confidence heading into next week's ASP Fiji Volcom Pro.

"Winning in Brazil will have a big effect on him and he'll be buzzing when he takes to the water in Fiji," he said.

"The Prime events are so hard to win, so for him to take that event the way he did is sensational."

The win gave Coleborn 6500 championship points catapulting him to 14th place in the world rankings.

Given the huge amount of entrants involved in the competition, Prime events are the highest rated events in world surfing with 96 surfers battling it out for valuable world championship points.

WITH the win in Brazil earning him a wildcard into next week's event in Fiji, Brady said Coleborn's experience against the world's top surfers gave him a chance to go deep into the latter stages of the competition.

"Let's not forget he drew Kelly Slater in the first round of last year's competition and beat him convincingly," he said.

Slater went on to win the event with Coleborn knocked out in his third round heat, succumbing to fellow Australian and eventual 2012 world champion Joel Parkinson.

Brady said Coleborn's powerful surfing style would benefit him when he padd

les out at the world-class Fijian reef break.

"The toughest thing about the qualifying series is that you're up against so many surfers in every event, often in poor quality waves," he said.

"Mitch will thrive in getting out in the big quality surf of Fiji because he's proven he can handle it."

With few surfers having the full gamut of skills required to excel at the various tour competitions, Brady described Coleborn as the complete surfer.

"Mitch is so talented and is one of the better aerial surfers, he's great in the barrel and is a solid power surfer as well," he said.

"He's not the biggest bloke, but moves so much water which is something the judges like."